1. O virtuous one who excels the eminent in understanding
None aspires to comprehend him, he is unmatched

2. You are foremost in merit and generosity, preceding
All others in discourse, an intrepid poet

3. Your prose attains the miracles of rhythm and composition
Surpassing it, embodied in marvelous harmony

4. Thus I dispelled your bridle, for none but you
In my eyes, deserves a bridle

5. And I attained from you an ocean that sprang from
The overwhelming currents of its imagination

6. With meanings like melodies beneath words
That resemble unsheathed swords

7. The words translate their gleam as the darkness
Translates the radiance of broad daylight

8. Strangely, it takes the place of cool comfort
Though it is but speech

9. I wonder, did the garden lend it ornament
Or did the days dress it in felicity

10. Or did the doctrine of transmigration become truth
And the soul of An-Nazzam transmigrated into you

11. Or did you take after my rhetoric
While people slept, in a unique manner

12. If merit, generosity and understanding possess
A sword, then you are that sword